Sing Backwards and Weep: A Memoir

By Mark Lanegan

Book Overview

This gritty bestselling memoir by the singer Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, and Soulsavers documents his years as a singer and drug addict in Seattle in the '80s and '90s.

When Mark Lanegan first arrived in Seattle in the mid-1980s, he was just "an arrogant, self-loathing redneck waster seeking transformation through rock 'n' roll." Little did he know that within less than a decade he would rise to fame as the frontman of the Screaming Trees and then fall from grace as a low-level crack dealer and a homeless heroin addict, all the while watching some of his closest friends rocket to the forefront of popular music.

In Sing Backwards and Weep, Lanegan takes readers back to the sinister, needle-ridden streets of Seattle, to an alternative music scene that was simultaneously bursting with creativity and dripping with drugs. He tracks the tumultuous rise and fall of the Screaming Trees, from a brawling, acid-rock bar band to world-famous festival favorites that scored a hit number five single on Billboard's alternative charts and landed a notorious performance on Late Night with David Letterman, where Lanegan appeared sporting a fresh black eye from a brawl the night before. This book also dives into Lanegan's personal struggles with addiction, culminating in homelessness, petty crime, and the tragic deaths of his closest friends. From the back of the van to the front of the bar, from the hotel room to the emergency room, onstage, backstage, and everywhere in between, Sing Backwards and Weep reveals the abrasive underlining beneath one of the most romanticized decades in rock history-from a survivor who lived to tell the tale.

Gritty, gripping, and unflinchingly raw, Sing Backwards and Weep is a book about more thanjust an extraordinary singer who watched hisdreams catch fire and incinerate the groundbeneath his feet. It's about a man who learnedhow to drag himself from the wreckage, dust offthe ashes, and keep living and creating.

"Mark Lanegan--primitive, brutal, and apocalyptic. What's not to love?" --Nick Cave, author of The Sick Bag Song and The Death of Bunny Munro

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306922789
• ISBN13: 9780306922787
• Release Date: April 2021
• Publisher: Da Capo
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The good, bad, and ugly, beautifully narrated.

This about as honest of an autobiography as you'll ever find. You can hear his voice so clearly and feel the circumstances which led him to be who he was. Tons of personal anecdotes, an excellent snapshot into the drug fueled grunge trend the permeated the Seattle/PNW during the 90s and 00s. A truly unflinching self examination of a fascinating, one-of-a-kind, and flawed human being. Gripping from start to finish.

Memoir Of Mark Lanegan

I finished reading this book about a month ago. I’m glad I read it, especially since today I learned that Mark Lanegan passed away. In the book, Mark details his life from the perspective of his alcohol and drug fueled life. Chasing the high, what great lengths an addict will go to find his next high. He also details his ongoing unhappiness with the Screaming Trees as well as touring and spending time with some of the best bands of the 90’s. Good read…